Both applications have been around FAR longer (the 2nd one even more so) than the I1. So how does Motorola define push-to-talk? It must not have anything to do with pushing something and holding in order to talk to somebody because both of those applications have enabled ANY Android device on ANY carrier to do so since they launched.
I know what you're thinking, "but the I1 has a hardware button for PTT." True, and?

Admittedly I've never owned a Nextel so I'm not sure how the "traditional" solution works for phones (as opposed to radios), but it would seem to me that you're going to have to turn the screen on and select (or at least confirm) a recipient the majority of the time so what's the big difference between holding a button on the screen, and one on the side of the phone?

Can anyone explain to me under what circumstances Motorola has created the "world's first push-to-talk Android-powered smartphone"?

P.S. I use TiKl regularly and love it. I've used WalkieTalkie also and it's great as well, but for different reasons and those reasons are currently its weakness as well. I hope to see one of these developers combine the best of both.

Tuesday, July 27, 2010

In what appears to be unrelated incidents, two men were found dead yesterday attempting to unlock the Droid X from Motorola.

Steve Wozniak, creator and co-founder of the first Apple Computer, was found slumped over his desk yesterday dead from an apparent heart attack. Mr. Wozniak, who had been seen with a Droid cell phone, was enthusiastic about the rooting of the Droid X and wanted to be involved in the unlocking of the phone. He told a friend that he would not eat or drink anything until he unlocked the Droid X. After three days of dehydration, his heart gave out. In his hand was a scribbled note that read "It can't be done."

Steven Bird (aka Birdman), the person who gave root to the Droid X, died in an explosion yesterday during the one millionth attempt to change the bootloader code in the phone. At it turns out, the eFuse in the Droid X is not a circuit breaker, but rather a small fuse attached to an explosive device inside the phone. It is not clear if the eFuse was lit by the one millionth attempt, or if a signal was sent to his cell phone by Motorola.

When Motorola was asked about these two incidents, a spokesman had no official comment, but did say that it is his opinion that both people got what they deserved. "Messing with Open Source code is not allowed on the Droid X and we are not responsible for the consequences." When asked if Motorola could transmit a signal to set off the eFuse, the spokesman said "No Comment" but did mention Motorola is giving a free Droid X to each judge in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals who wrote that breaking DRM code was not illegal.

(Submitted by EdEd from http://AllDroid.org and assumed to be pure BS and funny as hell! Hope you got as good a laugh as I did.)

Saturday, July 24, 2010

So today I went to open VS 2010 RTM and was surprised by an error that seemed more appropriate for a runtime error than something I'd see just opening devenv:

I spent 3 hours researching this and Google/MSDN got me nowhere. Nearly every promising lead I found refered to "devenv.exe /ResetSettings", but nothing I tried made a difference. That pretty much told me that it's not an environment setting Per se, but something more generalized to Windows.

So I fired up Process Monitor and started looking for registry activity related to 'width' and '-120'. It didn't take me long to find the registry entry: HKCU\Software\Microsoft\VisualStudio\10.0\MainWindow which contained the data: "4 4 -120 200 3". Seemed obvious enough that this was the size/location of the DevEnv MainWindow so I changed -120 to 800 (seemed a reasonable width), and fired up VS2010 again.

NO ERROR! :)

Hope this will save someone else the headache. I think this occurred because I RDP'd into my workstation (which has 4 monitors connected, number 2 from the left being my primary) from my Droid using "Remote RDP" from www.toremote.com (not that the client has any responsibility, I just wanted to give the dev some exposure because I really like this RDP client), and did a remote restart. I think Windows didn't gracefully handle the geometry and when I tried to reopen from my physical desktop, VS2010 didn't gracefully handle the error.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

You may not hear from him much, but by now you should realize that what Birdman does say should be heard. He discovered a vector earlier this evening and he's done it; Droid X has been rooted (su, not partition flashing for those who still aren't clear on the difference).

This comes only days after the X goes public and following a LOT of nay-sayers claiming it wouldn't happen. They also say that the bootloader won't be cracked. Can't wait to see how soon we get to prove they were wrong also.

If you want to donate to Mr. Bird to show appreciation for his time and efforts, do so HERE. He is a struggling student and can use every extra bit of income. Not to pat myself too hard, but I saw to it that he got an X for nearly nothing to help promote this project.

It struck me as too much of a "fad". - I'd say it's been around long enough to prove that impression as incorrect and I've come to like the idea.

I didn't want to use a service that would associate me with a company or product I didn't believe in and I couldn't find a good service I could host myself. - Google is a company I happily and proudly align myself with.

I think I've subconsciously been avoiding the idea because of a fear that I'd spend too much time writing posts.

I worry that writing about the things that I feel most strongly about might back-fire. This means that I'll only be writing about things I'm prepared to address on both a personal and professional level (not just a "personal" blog).

I've made note of enough people sharing their experiences professionally that will save others a significant amount of time/effort and I want to do the same.

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About Me

Michael Richardson

I've been involved in I.T. at least part-time since 1993 and full-time at an enterprise level since 1999 (USMC warehouse management systems). Currently I'm involved in virtually every aspect of maintaining a production network and related system critically responsible for $1m+ of business revenue (to include software/DB architecture and development). If my current venture doesn't pan out, I hope to find a future with Google, perhaps as a Developer Advocate where my vast knowledge-base could be well utilized and I would be exposed to fresh ideas (I love learning and sharing). I'm a true but tolerable INTJ (see Jung - Myers-Briggs or Keirsey Temperament). As is the case with most INTJ's, I don't respond well to people being mentally lazy, but I'm not antagonistic to the extent that INTJ's are stereotyped to be.